Cisco CEO John Chambers: Live From The Gartner Conference

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers takes the stage this morning at the Gartner Symposium IT Expo in Orlando this morning, where he was interviewed fireside chat style by a pair of Gartner analysts, Richard Hunter and David Willis.

I'll be blogging the event live, which starts at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.

• 11:03 a.m. As the lights go dark, Gartner shows video of attendees asking questions addressed to Chambers.
• Hunter and Willis are introduced. They are doing a shared introduction of Chambers. Willis notes that there have been many executive departures in recent years. He also notes that they face strategic competition; he also points out that they have been named as one of Gartner's six key strategic IT vendors.
• Chambers walks on stage. Clapping ensues.
• First question: What are the next big inflection points for the IT industry?
• Chambers says he agrees that oer next five years, the fabric IT will be deeply embedded in every business process. IT community has to quit acting like vendors, and help people solve problems. He says odds of success are 50/50 at best.
• Chambers thinks Internet of Everything becomes platform for the future.
• If vendors does not think of client approach, they have a problem. Have to evolve role of IT to be a business partner. Business first, IT second. Has implications for role of the CIO; inflection point which is coming at us rapidly.
• 11:10 a.m.: Where is the next shortage of IT talent? Easy answer, he says, is number of engineers, and the barriers to immigration for talented non-American engineers. But he says the harder answer is that talent that is missing  is where IT and business intersect. Without that, IT will get end result they'll have to clean up 5-10 years later.
• Chambers says that within Cisco, there is already shifting of IT talent into business side, and vice versa. Cisco leaders need to learn to lead across silos.
• Q: How do large vendors need to change?
• Chambers says any of them who thinks they will be in that top 6 five years from now might be wrong. Of the six, at best 4 or 3 will be on that list five years from now. Anyone who thinks the customers are a drag are "already messed up."
• Chambers note that there was a time when they were considered difficult to do business with; but he says surveys show they are now at the top of the list of companies that are easy to do business with.
• Q: He's asked about the prospect of government regulation of the Internet market.
• Chambers says you have to educate government leaders about the challenges of regulating something that has become great without regulation. He says President Clinton got it. If you regulate things, you slow innovation, and will get it wrong. You can make yourself non-competitive. Chamber says, think about trying to regulate security. Government should not be deciding winners or losers. He says issues have to be addressed in public/private partnerships.
• 11:22 a.m. Chambers says the company will continue to combine hardware, software and ASICs. Silicon, software and hardware together is what has allowed Apple to succeed, he says. Companies need to do all three. If you are software only, you can't move at the speed of companies that have all three pieces. You want to make decisions on big data in real-time; architecture wins here, combination of all three elements. Company will likely double software revenues over next 5 years.
• Chambers says Cisco is the most open player in the whole IT industry. You have to get open standards in place, he says, then add value on top of those open standards in an open architecture.
• Q: Is it better to be Cisco than Oracle?
• Chambers: He says he has a lot of admiration for them. But he says, "Do I like Cisco's hand? Oh, yes." He says "we're trying not to mess up the cards we were given."
• He says he would never bet against Oracle.
• On HP and CEO Meg Whitman: Chambers notes that he and Whitman have been friends for many years. He thinks it is a company that lost its way. If anybody can do it, Meg can, and Ray can. Important for Silicon Valley for them to do well. But he also says that in areas where they overlap, Cisco will work to beat them.
• Q: Can you reduce complexity?
• He says complexity will slow us all down. They have to give fewer choices, and be easier to drive through. We'd all rather see people spend money on solving business problems, rather dealing with technical complexity. "I'd give us just a fair market on ease of use," he says. Chambers says they can differentiate from peers with architectural play, not specific pieces of hardware or software.
• Lightening round!
• Q: Should West be suspicious of Chinese IT firms?
• No. Have to judge companies different than countries. We partner in China, build products in China.
• Q: How would you change patent laws?
• Would throw out everything and start from the beginning. There are patent trolls everywhere. He says IT companies should not be suing peers. Slows down the industry. It is a mess, it is unacceptable.
• Q: What are biggest risks of cloud?
• To get expectations too high; determining architecture ahead of time; not taking distributed approach.
• Q: When will you bring back the Flip videocam?
• Never, he says. When you miss a market transition, you don't get a second chance. Shame on me.
• Q: What would you recommend to the next President?
• You have to realize that U.S. has to lead us out of the economic slowdown; partner with business; create jobs; use technology to address all those issues?
• Q: Where will the next Silicon Valley be?
• Silicon Valley he says.
• Q: What does open networking mean to you?
• We want to not confuse open with proprietary - like Microsoft in video. It's ability to add value on top of openness.
• 11:37 a.m. Q: What is Cisco's larger purpose? What is its soul?
• Helping customers meet there goals. Should be the company that helps transform society; create great returns for shareholders; lead by example to give people on a global basis a chance to participate. Bring education globally to help u all.
• Biggest IT public policy issue?
• Government has to walk their talk. When they cut IT budgets, they are cutting their futures. They need to use technology to address their issues.
• Q: What has been your biggest challenge in 17 years at head of Cisco?
• Chambers said one of his competitors congratulated him on constantly reinventing Cisco. He notes that same person noted that he moves players around every 3-4 years. Ability to constantly reinvent yourself as a leader is hard, but important. None of Cisco's competitors 15 years ago are gone. Cisco says they gained share over the last year against all of their primary rivals.
• 11:42 a.m. Q: Will challenge for your successor be different?
• Chambers says next leader - actually group of 4-5 leaders - will have to challenge some of the things he did. Will be more collaborative, less command and control. He says transition to new CEO will be smooth when it happens in next 2-4 years.
• Final word: You need to constantly earn customer confidence. Our goal is to be your best IT partner. CIO has to have much more of a business understanding to really solve business problems.